News & Discussion: Roads & Traffic

[rev]

Magill and Portrush being upgraded at a cost of 98 million for a few extra lanes, property acquisitions NO over or under passes ????? what the hell...

Always laugh when people complain about the prices of these projects, like how would you even know what a certain infrastructure project should cost..?

So what should it cost? When you're done laughing...


I think it's quite reasonable to wonder how nearly $100 million is being spent to widen an intersection, when it's costing $198 million to not only widen an intersection/road but build a bridge over a rail line which will include community rec facilities underneath, not to mention re-aligning the route of a few side streets nearby..Or you know the Port Wakefield bypass project at $124 million..
I don't think I'm alone in wondering that. I think as tax payers we are entitled to ask these questions and get answers. Since you know, we're paying for it.

[Nort]

https://www.magillroad.com.au/files/110 ... oposal.pdf

The Portrush and Magill Road
Intersection Upgrade is a joint funded
Project of the Australian and South
Australian Governments. A $98 million
budget is reported to be spent on
the Project, of which approximately
$8 million is for project and contract
management, $71 million is for land
acquisition, and $19 million for is for
construction
...
Nine (9) local businesses
and thirty-four (34) privately owned
properties have been acquired in order
to deliver the Project.

Acquiring 43 properties in Norwood is expensive.

[rev]

$71 million for 43 properties, or about $1.6 million per property.

Median price for Norwood is $937,500.

[ChillyPhilly]

The project is in Trinity Gardens.

It is definitely a big chunk of change for a very limited outcome.

[PD2/20]

The project is in Trinity Gardens.

It is definitely a big chunk of change for a very limited outcome.

Four suburbs meet at the intersection. The majority, if not all of the acquistions have been west of Portrush in the suburbs of Norwood and Maylands.

[Nort]

$71 million for 43 properties, or about $1.6 million per property.

Median price for Norwood is $937,500.

So it seems about right. Many of the properties there were reasonably large, and there were valuable commercial properties added in.

Add the additional costs related to managing a compulsory acquisition and the premium which is paid to compensate people who don't want to move.

[1NEEDS2POST]

I imagine the modifications to create a "trackless tram" from a normal bus are at least as significant as to make an O-bahn bus. The O'bahn corridor would not be suitable for a "conventional busway" as the track would not be wide enough without some kind of automatic guide.

Fair question about trains and trams. I suspect it has to do with the frequency of level crossings. I wonder what the longest segments are in Adelaide without any level crossings (vehicle or pedestrian).

Trackless trams actually have that automatic guide. It's just not a mechanical one.

I understood that. That part of my answer was to @Spotto's comment that O-Bahn buses need to be specially modified to operate on the track. I think a trackless tram modification would be at least as expensive as a guidewheel modification.

The other part is the suggestion of a "conventional unguided busway" - I suspect that the track/corridor is not wide enough to support high speed operations in opposing directions without a lot more walls (outside and in the middle) and space to manually avoid scraping them.

Trackless trams would address what Spotto mentioned about tyre wear. From what I've seen online, trackless trams steer the rear axles so they won't hit the edges of the road. There's no limit to the length of a trackless tram because the carriages follow the exact same track as the one in front. With buses, the rear axles always follow a narrower radius than the one in front.

Surely trackless trams could steer themselves on a kerb guided O-Bahn track anyway.

Rundle Road also has a tram corridor reservation (this is assuming the long vaunted Grenfell-Currie transport mall remains that; long vaunted).

Do you have any more information on that? Where does the tram corridor go at the Western end?

[rubberman]

Trackless trams are just guided buses. The technology for trailers to follow the unit connected in front has been in use in road trains for decades.

Whether the guides are mechanical linkages or optical doesn't really matter.

We could call our O-Bahn buses "trackless trams" if we wanted. It's just a marketing name.

[Norman]

Here's a video with the latest progress on the Flagstaff Road widening project.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXFYsQ90MqE

[NTRabbit]

Here's a video with the latest progress on the Flagstaff Road widening project.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXFYsQ90MqE

As of the early hours of this morning Flagstaff Rd is now one lane up, one lane down all the way to the existing split, (with one small bulge to allow traffic past local residents turning into Elly Court) with the lines for it painted onto the surface, so it's going to be like that for a while.

[Furyan]

As reported earlier this week on 9 News Adelaide the budget includes $45m for the upgrade of Marion and Sir Donald Bradman Drive. Work to start next year.

With this amount of money I would expect extra lanes with land acquisition required.

[ChillyPhilly]

As reported earlier this week on 9 News Adelaide the budget includes $45m for the upgrade of Marion and Sir Donald Bradman Drive. Work to start next year.

With this amount of money I would expect extra lanes with land acquisition required.

Let's see if it's got some of those useless temporary third lanes. Would rather a dedicated mini bus lane with bus signals.

[Llessur2002]

$40m towards Brighton Rd intersection upgrades, Seaford rail improvements

Two busy intersections along Brighton Rd will be upgraded while signalling along the Seaford train line will be improved, as part of a $40 million road and transport overhaul in Adelaide’s southwest.

Construction work to upgrade the Brighton Rd, Wattle St and Dunrobin Rd intersection at Hove as well as the Brighton Rd and Edwards St intersection at South Brighton is scheduled to begin in late 2022.

Community consultation will take place in the coming weeks with upgrade designs centred on installing traffic lights at the intersections.

A total of $30 million has been committed to the project, which aims to cut travel times and enhance safety. A further $10 million has been earmarked to upgrade automated signals on the Seaford rail line. The federal and state governments are planning to split the bill for these initiatives 50:50.


The intersection of Brighton Rd and Edwards St, South Brighton. Picture: Rachel Moore

Both the road and rail upgrades are expected to be completed by mid-2024.

Federal Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher said “important infrastructure projects” would “help ease congestion on local roads, help commuters get home sooner and safely, and support local jobs”.

SA Transport Minister Corey Wingard said the upgrades would “ease frustrating traffic choke-points through the area”.

“The signalling upgrade on the Seaford rail line will ... optimise train operations to reduce delays from speed limitations and closure of at-grade crossings, delivering a quicker and more reliable commute,” he said.

The Advertiser reported in August last year that the SA Transport Department was developing a plan for traffic lights at the Brighton Rd and Edwards St intersection after the local community and Holdfast Bay councillors raised safety concerns about the junction.

The state government’s plan to remove the level crossing at Hove, to further ease congestion along Brighton Rd, was scrapped in June this year amid community opposition and cost blowouts.

From: https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/sou ... 6e488145b0

[ChillyPhilly]

Or they could have, y'know, not cancelled the rail grade separation project.

Liberals and avoidably wasting money - name a better duo.

[TorrensSA]

I used to live in Brighton and used the Edwards Street and Brighton Road intersection daily. It's chaos, I've had so many near misses, the vast majority was people turning right from Edwards Street almost T-boning my car. There was a very nasty accident there where a car turning right t-boned a motorcycle. Since they extended the shopping centre the pedestrian lights are in an awkward location, they need to remove these and install a full set of lights at Edwards Street, thus no actual increase in traffic lights. Some people are saying Brighton road has to many lights, it's not true in this section it's 1.2km between Sturt and Seacombe Roads. It's a busy stretch between Hove and Brighton Foodlands. They really should have done the grade seperation, the train line slows traffic down a lot more than the traffic lights.